Online musical instruments retailer Gear4music has increased its revenue by 43% to £80.1 million in the 12 months to 28 February as it worked through a “transformational” year.

GENERAL MERCHANDISE

Gear4music hails 'transformational' year

15 May 2018 | by The Retail Bulletin

UK revenue rose by 27% to £44.3 million to give the company an estimated 5.9% market share, while revenue in Europe climbed by 69% to 35.8 million as the region continued to represent a significant growth opportunity for the company.

Meanwhile, pre-tax profit was down 43% to £1.5 million after the retailer invested in new European distribution centres, its systems and a new head office.

During the year Gear4music increased its number of active customers by 39% to 475,000.

Andrew Wass, Gear4music chief executive, said: "This has been a transformational year of investment for Gear4music. During the year we raised an additional £4.2 million of growth capital, our European distribution centres became fully operational, and we moved into our new head office.

“We accelerated investment in our employees, systems, marketing and customer proposition, to firmly establish ourselves as one of Europe's leading online retailers of musical instruments and music equipment.”

While a period of targeted investment has had short-term profitability implications for the business, in the new financial year it will be focused on achieving returns from these investments.

Wass added: “As a result of the significant efforts of our team, and the investments we have made during FY18, we move into the new financial year with a market leading ecommerce platform, infrastructure and customer proposition.”

Gear4music said trading to date within the new financial year has been in line with expectations.